1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to optical switching elements, more specifically, to an optical switching element capable of switching an optical path at low operating voltage.
2. Related Art
The optical switching element having a rigid structure and operating at high speed at low operating voltage is required to build the next generation of optical data links. The traditional optical switching elements are structurally fragile since a Y-shaped branching path or an optical path switching coupler is generally used.
On the other hand, a multimode interference (MMI) that utilizes the interference of light is robust to unintentional alteration in refractive index and assembly failure and is a promising technology for the future, but traditionally, MMIs have only been used as passive elements in optical switching elements.